Frustrated by a lack of informed and honest review websites covering a wide range of electronic music, I write them myself.

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Bubble - OI

Mune Music/Carpe Sonum Records: 2011/2014

In all the music I've gathered, I've never come across something called OI. Now, in two straight albums, I've come across it twice. THE. ODDS! Though really, the Plaid track is called Ol, not OI. Pretty big difference there. Eh, they look the same to you? Oh, right, the standard font of the internet is Arial, which makes a capitalized 'i' and lowercase 'L' look identical. Let me rephrase that: the Plaid track is OhEl, and the Bubble album is OhEye. It's strange that the internet never abandoned Arial due to this – how many times have folks been confused whether a movie's called Rocky [three] or Rocky [ill]?

You know what also threw me for a loop? That John Sobocan got dibs to the Bubble alias with Lord Discogs. You'd think another act would have claimed it earlier, a simple, charming name that any number of producers could have tossed a one-off single with (no, not the Richard Dekkard project on Jackpot – that was The Bubble). In fact, I do have an album by another Bubble, a psy-trance act that released a debut way back in 2005, whereas Mr. Sobocan made his debut as Bubble much later. Psy Bubble were by no means stars, but they had enough presence such that you'd think they would be the Bubble-Prime within Discogs, not this tiny ambient project. The oddities one finds in deep Discogs dives, I swear.

Okay, enough preamble ramble. OI (capital 'i') is Sobocan's second album as Bubble, a collection of very ambient tracks composed and recorded during two sessions. The first occurred when, on the whim of a dream, John took a trip to Puttaparthi, India (as you do), no mean feat considering he resides on the literal opposite side of the globe in Ontario. While absorbing the culture, he made some music, though let it sit for nearly a half-decade before completing the album while wiling the time away in a remote Ontario region (also as you do). He released it on the hopelessly obscure Mune Music, and may have gone unnoticed, had he not caught the attention of Carpe Sonum Records. Oh yes, Bubble, too, was part of the indispensable comprehensive Pete Namlook tribute box-set Die Welt Ist Klang. Oh, and getting an album out on Databloem under his own name probably didn't hurt John's prospects either.

Not much room left to talk music in this review, but honestly, there's little to say. This is as soft, calming, velvety, and relaxing as ambient can go without going full New Age. Some tracks use field recordings and are relatively quiet and subtle, some make use of Halpern tones, others layer pads into lush textures and timbre, and Aum is all on that Eternal OM vibe, but Bubble isn't doing much unique for the ambient genre. It's a nice, simple little album that floats along on tufts of air, its grasp on your attention about as tenuous as that which Sobocan takes the project's namesake.